Amped FIVE

FIVE stands for Forensic Image and Video Enhancement. The product page states Windows 10 and 11 in 32 or 64-bit, with a warning that 32-bit support will end. No extra plug-ins or special hardware are needed. A case starts with loading a video, an image or an image sequence. Proprietary CCTV and DVR exports are decoded by the software's own engine and the maker accepts requests to add formats that do not yet play. The examiner then reads the file: Exif data, container and codec details and encoding information frame by frame. Filters are added as a chain. The maker lists stabilisation, deblurring, noise and lighting correction, super-resolution built from several frames, perspective and lens distortion correction, deinterlacing and aspect ratio correction among many others. Measurement tools estimate heights and speeds from footage, with a three-dimensional mode that uses a scene model. Redaction of faces and audio, annotation and side-by-side display of original and processed frames serve presentation.

The report is the part that matters most in court. FIVE records every filter, its settings and the scientific reference behind it, so another examiner can repeat the chain on the original and reach the same output. That is where enhancement stops and the examiner's work begins. Enhancement changes pixel values to help a viewer. Whether the clarified plate reads one character or another is interpretation, and the examiner says so. Whether the file was altered before it reached the laboratory is authentication, which belongs to Amped Authenticate or a similar tool. Validation means testing each filter on known material before relying on it. A good laboratory keeps the original export untouched, works on a hashed copy, saves the project file and never lets a filter add detail the camera did not record.